Media and Press

Groups Demand State, Federal Action on Nitrate Pollution in Letters to Oregon Governor, EPA

By Alex Baumhardt  |  Oct. 31, 2024  |  Oregon Capital Chronicle More than 20 groups across the U.S. said nitrate from farm fertilizers and manure is contaminating drinking water and disproportionately hurting rural communities. Nonprofit community groups in Oregon and nationwide are calling on elected leaders and officials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) […]

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First Sighting of Salmon in 100 Years Marks Key Milestone for Landmark Dam Removals

By Kurtis Alexander  |  Oct. 4, 2024  |  San Francisco Chronicle In an early victory for the nation’s largest dam removal project, the first salmon in more than a century is believed to have pushed up the Klamath River this past week into waters formerly blocked by dams. Scientists with the nonprofit California Trout told

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Water Resources Commission Adopts Update to Groundwater Allocation Rules

By KTVZ Staff  |  Sept. 12, 2024  |  KTVZ News The Oregon Water Resources Commission voted unanimously Thursday to adopt updates to Oregon’s groundwater allocation rules, “marking a historic step in how the state manages and allocates groundwater,” according to the agency and its supporters while critics of the new rules said they will press

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Groundwater Rights in Oregon Just Got Even More Valuable — Here’s Why

By Emily Cureton Cook  |  Sept. 12, 2024 |  Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon water regulators have spent the last three years working on a plan to prevent groundwater declines that could cause roughly 40,000 home wells statewide to dry up. That plan now has a crucial greenlight. The Oregon Water Resources Commission unanimously voted for

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Jim McCarthy on Campaign to Remove Winchester Dam on JPR’s Jefferson Exchange

Hosted by Mike Green  |  Sept. 11, 2024 |  Jefferson Public Radio Jim McCarthy, Southern Oregon program director at WaterWatch of Oregon, joined the Jefferson Exchange to discuss the controversy over incomplete repairs of the 134-year-old Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua River in Douglas County, and the growing movement to remove it altogether. Listen

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Huge California Dam Removal Project Ahead of Schedule — With Historic Return of Wildlife to Follow

By Kurtis Alexander  |  July 25, 2024  |  San Francisco Chronicle The dams, collectively known as the Klamath Hydroelectric Project, were built between 1911 and 1962 to provide electricity. The nation’s largest dam-removal project is moving along faster than planned, with the demolition work on the Klamath River near the California-Oregon border due to wrap

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U.S. and Canada Agree to Update 60 Year Old Columbia River Treaty

By Nicholas K. Geranios  |  July 24, 2024  |  Cascade PBS Politicians are celebrating the tentative agreement, while activists and tribal leaders say it doesn’t do enough to protect endangered salmon runs. The United States and Canada have reached a new deal to manage the mighty Columbia River, an economic and environmental powerhouse that starts

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U.S. Would Keep More Hydropower Under Agreement with Canada on Treaty Governing Columbia River

By Gene Johnson  |  July 11, 2024  |  Associated Press The U.S. and Canada said Thursday they have agreed to update a six-decade-old treaty that governs the use of one of North America’s largest rivers, the Columbia, with provisions that officials said would provide for effective flood control, irrigation, and hydropower generation and sharing between

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Declining Aquifer Levels Raise Alarm Among Central Oregon Hydrologists and Officials

By Michael Kohn  |  April 13, 2024  |  Bend Bulletin Amid patches of snow and ponderosa pines, a half mile from Lava Island Falls in the Deschutes River, a pair of hydrologists with the Oregon Water Resources Department dropped a cable down an observation well to determine the depth of groundwater near Bend. The cable

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Oregon’s Thermal Trading Program is Popular — It’s Also Expensive and Unproven

By Kendra Chamberlain  |  Feb. 29, 2024  |  Columbia Insight In 2012, President Barack Obama praised a deal the city of Medford had made with the state to pay for shade trees to be planted along the Rogue River in order to offset the impacts of warm water discharges from the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

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As Massive Klamath Dam Removal Project Nears Completion, Who Gets Once-Submerged Land?

By Kurtis Alexander  |  Feb. 22, 2024  |  San Francisco Chronicle The nation’s largest dam-removal project, the dismantling of four hydroelectric dams near the border of California and Oregon border, may be the end of one story — but it’s the beginning of another. The native Shasta people, who were exiled from the banks of the

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Uncharted Waters: As Groundwater Dwindles, Powerful Players Block Change

By Christopher Flavelle  |  Produced by Claire O’Neill, Matt McCann and Umi Syam  |  Edited by Lyndsey Layton and Douglas Alteen  |  Research contributed by Julie Tate  |  Nov. 24, 2023  |  New York Times Some of the people fighting efforts to conserve a vital resource that’s disappearing across the United States include the owners

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Court of Appeals Denies Proposed Drift Creek Dam But Water District Intends to Appeal

By Bill Poehler  |  Nov. 17, 2023  |  Salem Statesman Journal The Oregon Water Resources Commission and the Court of Appeals have prohibited the dam, saying it might harm cutthroat trout that spawn in the creek. Oregon’s Court of Appeals this month upheld a previous ruling prohibiting construction of a new dam south of Silverton

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Oregon Water Officials Say Permitting Must Change to Keep Tens of Thousands of Wells from Going Dry

By Alex Baumhardt  |  Nov. 13, 2023  |  Oregon Capital Chronicle The cost of digging deeper wells could climb into the hundreds of millions if the state does not revamp groundwater permitting, officials told lawmakers. The Oregon Water Resources Department must update its 68-year-old rules for permitting new wells or double down on regulating existing

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Denial of Permit to Build Dam on Drift Creek Marks Major Legal Victory for Instream Water Rights

Court upholds Oregon Water Resources Commission determination that the dam would harm fish and habitat. Good news: WaterWatch of Oregon has won the latest round in its fight to stop construction of a 70-foot-high dam on Drift Creek, a tributary of the Pudding River in Marion County. On Wednesday, the Oregon Court of Appeals upheld

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